Suppose there is or ever was, not saying that there was or is, but suppose that what might have existed and had left or was completely destroyed due to "conflicts" among "them" and it left no trace that we have yet been able to discover in any attempts to learn about the planet. Perhaps no life has ever existed there or what does is very "simple" yet evolved to stay alive on a less than "kind planet" to life forms we here are aware of. My notions range from "science to science fiction" as to life beyond this planet but I have yet to exclude any and all possibilities, one way or another.

Anything is possible... but maybe not probable...
Consider the bizarre forms of marine life found in depth no human can go.. the marine life that exists in very hot water in volcanic fumeroles..and that is on Earth... So why not Mars.. but some trace if life has existed in some form would still need some basic components to life, certain elements etc... If there were then there would be some for of trace..

Some of our Chiefs believe the land belongs to them...
But that is not what The Great Spirit told me... He said No one owns the land, that the land belongs to him. We are just keepers of the land, for our children and for their childrens childen.

As I have been given to understand Cockroaches can survive a nuclear fallout shower and prolonged exposire to radiation... So maybe the future of our planet is in an evolved giant cochroache... So who know what lurks beneath the ground on Mars....

Some of our Chiefs believe the land belongs to them...
But that is not what The Great Spirit told me... He said No one owns the land, that the land belongs to him. We are just keepers of the land, for our children and for their childrens childen.

Some of our Chiefs believe the land belongs to them...
But that is not what The Great Spirit told me... He said No one owns the land, that the land belongs to him. We are just keepers of the land, for our children and for their childrens childen.

Re topic.....was it Bones, aka Dr. McCoy who said "It's life Jim....but not as we know it"? (from an early episode of Star Trek but please don't ask me which one.) What I'm trying to say is that alien forms of life may have evolved in such a way that they do not need the same life sustaining things that we do. Maybe what seems absolutely deadly to us is exactly what is keeping them alive......who knows?

Sandy they did make a movie/ TV series about 6ft Cockroaches having intelligence... I think it was a spoof movie. cannot recall what it was called... Just imagine the actor on his cv.. 'Played a 6ft roach

Some of our Chiefs believe the land belongs to them...
But that is not what The Great Spirit told me... He said No one owns the land, that the land belongs to him. We are just keepers of the land, for our children and for their childrens childen.